The Reality Dysfunction [Hardcover]

The only reason that I'm giving this series of books three stars(I'm actually reviewing the whole series of six, not just the first -- it's one long novel in six volumes) is because I actually read the whole thing. I recall a conversation in which a fellow told me that he'd just read five Leo Frankowski novels in a row, and boy! were they bad! I myself have never even read a sentence of Leo Frankowski's writing, so I don't have an opinion on it; my question was, if they were so bad, why did you read five of them in a row?

The reason I read the whole _Night's Dawn_ epic is that I was reading it on breaks and at lunch at work. It took really a long time, and I started bogging down toward the end.

I've glanced at some of the other reviews of this work, and have many of the same criticisms. My greatest complaint about this story is that there is just entirely too much of it! Hamilton could probably have gotten his point across in a third the space (though I suspect that would still have felt bloated): this thing has too many characters, too many subplots, and too much of it comes across as filler. The plot moves forward with a glacial ponderousness, and the end still feels as though he got rushed and came up with sort of a deus ex machina.

I must say, though, that I think Hamilton has gotten much better since he wrote this. I read the _Pandora's Star_ books, and liked them much better than _The Reality Dysfunction_ et. al.

I've noticed other reviewers mentioning Hamilton's inability to get outside the Queen's English. I think it's worse than that. These books are filled with sentence fragments, and every now and then he uses an adjective in a way that suggests that he wrote this monstrosity with a thesaurus on the desk next to the keyboard. "The heavy rain went on and on and covered Durringham with an unctuous coat" (or words to that effect) -- I do recall the "unctuous" part as describing the effect of the rain. And the _Naked God_ part of the series gets worse; it looks as though the publisher cut corners on copyediting, so that we have "principal" for "principle" throughout, as well as others. The worst howler was "bowel" for "bowl." That is almost certainly not Hamilton's mistake, but it still does not enhance the reading experience. And, of course, his characters who do not speak British English do not have convincing dialogue. When he wrote this, he for instance didn't know that an American would use "around" where a Briton uses "about."

That's the bad news. The good news is that Hamilton has really weird ideas, and his writing has a sort of primitive vigor which carries you along: I did finish this thing, after all!

If you've never read anything by Peter F. Hamilton, this is not the place to start. I would recommend _Pandora's Star_ and _Judas Unleashed_ (or is it "Unchained?" Whatever.), as they are much better written -- and perhaps have better copyediting, as well.

I've read an awful lot of science fiction over the years, and recently returned to the genre after a lengthy absence. In doing so, I made a concerted effort to upgrade my reading list and familiarize myself with the new generation of sci-fi writers. My recent experience has been a real revelation. Whereas in the past, most of the science fiction I consumed was very easy to read and understand (Asimov as an example), some of the works I've sampled in the last year or two have quite literally been over my head.

I read Dune (multiple times) many years ago. I proceeded on to the Dune sequels, but after two or three they became so philosophically dense that I lost interest. I recently read Herbert's widely acknowledged masterpiece The Dosadi Experiment and again was forced to admit that I was incapable of appreciating it fully. Ditto for much of Philip Dick's writing.

In an effort to read all joint Hugo/Nebula Award winners, I ran into a few other such works. Some of the new generation of sci-fi writers have published undeniably outstanding novels that I simply couldn't enjoy fully. Charles Stross, Neal Stephenson and Ian McDonald come immediately to mind. These cats are just too intelligent for me to relate to (and I have a post graduate degree!).

Others, such as Joe Scalzi, David Brin and Joe Haldeman crank out easily understood and entertaining work (in the mode of Asimov), but without all the heavy lifting some of the previously cited authors require. All of this to say, that in Peter Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction I discovered what I felt was a very happy medium: Vastly entertaining, but with just the level of challenge and difficulty that I could master without detracting from my enjoyment of the reading experience. There are some pretty heavy concepts in this novel, yet I never felt that I was lost or over my head. Outstanding example of "hard" science fiction.

One of my science fiction pet peeves are hackneyed alien life forms. Multi armed/legged creatures, insect or other animal like beings, as if alien life forms have to fit into human constructs. Larry Niven's Ringworld is a perfect example (giant cats and Pierson's Puppets). While this novel has some of that, it also has some very intriguing alien life forms which do not fit neatly into our preconceived notions of how an alien may look or behave. It also includes sentient habitats and spaceships, a concept I first encountered in Charles Stross's Saturn's Children.

At over 1,000 pages, and only the first of three books in a series, this is an undertaking that requires a significant time commitment. There are also a dizzying number of plot threads which could be hard to keep straight.
Not the kind of book that you read for a while, put aside and take up again a few weeks later. However, if you're up to the challenge, I don't think you'll be disappointed. On to book two.

After reading the reviews online here, I was very hesitant to read this book. I majored in woman's studies in college, and I have little interest in spending time reading a book that is full of misogynist plot lines. To my great surprise, I found that the book was not only an excellent read but very tame compared to hard-core books from other genres.

Hamilton uses a multiple storyline structure in this book and it is very hard to say who the is the main character. I rather liked this approach, mainly because each of the characters had a distinct voice in the book. None of the characters are meant to be utterly sympathetic, nor entirely evil. Hamilton gives each character strong motivations that seem to me to show how the world really works, and not an idealized version you see often in science fiction.

I am not one to spoil a book, so I will not delve very deeply into the plot, but for me I really enjoyed how each plot twist was somehow related to another storyline later down the road. This is a rather Dickensian concept, and I find refreshing for a modern author. Once you get through a few chapters it is easy to tell what is important to the storyline, and what is not by how much time the author takes to describe the setting. This made it very easy for me to keep track of who was what over the 1100+ pages of the book.

And lastly, in regards to the negative reviews here, I really do not agree with the assessment. I kept waiting for a very disturbing scene to happen, or for awful things to be described but that never manifested. This is perhaps because I am a horror junkie, but the violent scenes in the book did not seem gratuitous or excessively descriptive.

I really found very little misogyny in the book, and in fact as I read the book I was impressed by the amount of strong female characters in it. The author does takes a very realistic approach about sex, and perhaps that is where the accusations of misogyny come from. Seriously, it is not wrong for women to want to have sex with another man, and it is not wrong for a man and woman to use each other for that purpose. That is how the world works. People are not priests and nuns, we lead varied and interesting lives and Hamilton is very good at portraying those traits realistically.

In closing, this book was a great read. Do not let the negative reviews bother you, and be prepared for a long read. The best part for me about this book was knowing that once it was over, there were 2 more equally long books that take place after this one. I love being able to find an interesting book and to see how it caries along in a series. 5 stars all the way, and I am glad I gave this book the chance I did.